Othello

Historical Background
Venice
Venice was a city-state
It was extremely wealthy due to trade it
was ideally positioned to trade with Western
Europe, Greece, Africa and the rest of the
world
It was a republic ruled by the wealthiest
families
The wealth of Venice helped to fund the
Renaissance, the building of impressive
architecture
It was a centre of culture
 The Renaissance

Renaissance means rebirth and refers to

a time when great artistic, cultural and
educational advances took place
Partly inspired by classical Greece and
Rome.
Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci
Titian and Tintoretto lived in Venice
The wealth of Venice meant great
artworks and buildings were
commissioned
 It protected its trade with strong
military force
Venice was cosmopolitan Jews,
Arabs, Europeans came together
However it was also seen as a barrier
defending Christian Europe from the
Muslims of Turkey and the Middle East
Cyprus was of extreme strategic
importance
Setting

The play uses the comedy structure of

old husband + young bride
And the typical Shakespearean comic
geography of dual locations (e.g.
Midsummer Nights Dream)
Venice is a city and place of reason
Cyprus is a wilderness and place of
irrationality and emotion
 Setting/Character

How does Othello act in Venice? In

Cyprus?
In Venice Othello acts calmly
He is concerned with honour and virtue
He is content with his life
In Cyprus he is emotional and irrational
Shakespeare

He never left England

Which was a very different place
Venice would hold an exotic fascination
for Shakespeare and his audience
 The Moor

The slave trade had just begun when

Shakespeare was writing Othello
He and his audience would have begun
to see slaves being led through the
streets in chains
Black people were often seen as primitive
The play depicts Othello as an outsider
object of fascination and suspicion and
himself insecure
Turks

These were Muslims

They were seen as a threat to
Christianity and Venetian prosperity
map
Tragedy

Hubris extreme pride, over-

confidence
Anagnorisis - realisation
Hamartia error or fatal flaw
Catharsis - acceptance and healing
Shakespearean Tragedy

Heroes are victims of their own

excesses or self-deception
Lack of understanding prevents them
from seeing the truth
Suffer from inner conflict
Characters of high power of status